Four Participants Sign Up for an Experiment Examining the Effects

question 37

Multiple Choice

Four participants sign up for an experiment examining the effects of alcohol on sociability. One participant is given an alcoholic beverage to drink and is told that it is alcohol. A second participant is given an alcoholic beverage to drink but told that it is nonalcoholic. A third drinks a nonalcoholic beverage but is told that it contains alcohol, and a fourth is given a nonalcoholic beverage and is told that it is nonalcoholic. Suppose that the effects of alcohol on sociability were entirely due to the alcohol and had nothing to do with expectancies. Which participant(s) would behave more socially after drinking?

• A)Participant 2 only
• B)Participant 3 only
• C)Participants 1 and 3
• D)Participants 1 and 2

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Definitions:

Cognitive Dissonance

A mental discomfort experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.

Doomsday Group

A collective or organization that predicts or prepares for a catastrophic end of the world.

Formal Reasoning

The cognitive process of thinking logically and systematically about abstract concepts and problems, often associated with the ability to perform operations in a formal operational stage of development.

Informal Reasoning

The process of thinking about issues in an everyday, non-structured manner, often without strict rules of logic.